Anchorman 2 Finally Dead After Paramount Turns It Down

Just a few days, ago, even though we and many others had basically called the project dead, Adam McKay was once again promising that they were trying to make Anchorman 2, and that Steve Carell and Paul Rudd had even dropped their salaries in order to get the movie a greenlight. Turns out McKay was more serious than we thought-- apparently he was actively pitching the film to Paramount, but despite the budget cuts, the studio said no anyway.

This news comes from McKay's Twitter account, where he said that Paramount "basically passed... even after we cut the budget down. We tried." It's hard to imagine how the movie's budget could have been too big, especially with the stars cutting their salaries, and the notion of a movie uniting Carell, Rudd and Ferrell is appealing even if it's not a sequel to a hugely successful film. What do you suppose Paramount is thinking here?

It's easy not to be too heartbroken over this news, given that we never really expected Anchorman 2 to happen at all, but it's surprising to know that the project was killed not by conflicting cast schedules or egos, but a studio too worried about money to let Ron Burgundy ride again.